


just keep burning on (it's a lot like breathing)

by rosestone



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Infinity Stone Weirdness, Interesting People You Meet In Prison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:27:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26215618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosestone/pseuds/rosestone
Summary: Gamora meets a strange woman in the Kyln.  Things only get stranger from there.
Relationships: Jane Foster/Gamora
Comments: 8
Kudos: 22
Collections: Alternate Universe Exchange 2020





	just keep burning on (it's a lot like breathing)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Snickfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snickfic/gifts).



Gamora leaned back against the cold wall of her cell, staring at the door. She ought to try to sleep; Thanos's enhancements allowed her to endure exhaustion longer than most, but it would still take its toll on her eventually. She needed rest, as much as she could manage here, and later food, as much as she could scrounge from whatever scraps the guards threw them.

But the expressions on the prisoners who'd jeered at her as she walked in still haunted her. Gamora couldn't blame them for hating her, not after everything she'd done in Thanos and Ronan's names, but she didn't want to endure whatever revenge they had in mind, either. 

It had been true, what she'd told Quill. Thanos had done worse to her than these petty criminals could ever dream of.

That didn't mean it wouldn't hurt.

If she was to survive here with a minimum of long-term damage, Gamora would need to be at her sharpest. Any hesitation could lead to a knife between her ribs. Any weakness would encourage the less dangerous prisoners to try to attack her, seeing openings they could take advantage of even if they lacked the power of their more powerful fellows.

If she slept, they could come through the unlocked door and do anything they liked to her. If she stayed awake, sooner or later she'd be incapable of fighting back.

There had to be a better solution.

Perhaps she could sleep in short bursts the way she'd been taught. Though it wouldn't be particularly restful -

Gamora turned almost without thought, reaching for a knife she no longer had, and came face to face with a woman at the back of her cell.

The stranger gasped and flinched back, spreading her open hands away from her body. "I - I'm sorry. I didn't realise you were in here."

 _She_ hadn't realised someone was in here? It was almost unimportant compared to Gamora's actual problem: that the cell had been empty when she'd entered it, and that she'd checked for hidden openings after the guards and hangers-on had left. Nobody should have been in here. Nobody _could_ have been in here. And yet, here she was.

"Who are you?"

The woman licked her lips. "I'm - Jane. I'm Jane."

Xandarian, by the paleness of her skin, but more delicate than most from that planet that Gamora had seen: Jane's prison clothes hung off her, and her arms had the slimness of someone who'd never wielded a weapon. Her brown hair hung loose around her face where it could easily impair her vision. In short: Jane was the least dangerous-looking person Gamora had seen in the Kyln - or, for that matter, on Xandar.

And Gamora's instincts were screaming the opposite.

"How did you get in here?" Gamora asked. Perhaps this Jane would have a reasonable answer, one that accounted for all Gamora's precautions to ensure she couldn't be attacked too easily. Perhaps her response would explain why she seemed so much more dangerous than she ought to, more than a hidden weapon could possibly account for.

Jane shuffled back a step, eyes flicking up and down Gamora. Despite her unthreatening appearance, she clearly wasn't completely innocent to the Kyln's dangers. "It's a long story."

"There's little enough else to do here but talk." Not quite true - Gamora suspected many of their fellow inmates found entertainment in fighting one another - but that wasn't something she could risk, and given Jane had evidently been hiding somewhere around here she must have felt similarly.

Which, now that she thought about it, was odd if there really was anything dangerous about Jane. Perhaps she'd gotten tangled up with Thanos or Ronan at some point and the half-memory of her face from some briefing or another was making Gamora sense danger where there was none. She certainly hadn't suffered any injury or privation that might cause her instincts to fail her - yet, anyway.

"I - well -" Jane broke off with a gasp as the door behind Gamora creaked.

Gamora turned, fists raised, knowing she'd be too slow. She shouldn't have let herself become distracted. She should have backed into the other corner, somewhere she could have watched Jane and the door at the same time, but instead she'd let herself get caught up in a mystery, and now -

Now there was a knife at her throat.

Watching the Kyln vanish into the distance, Gamora was finally able to allow herself to relax. Her companions clearly felt the same way; none of them had dared to leave the cockpit until it was plain to see that they'd escaped, no ships soaring out of the Kyln to follow them to Knowhere. One by one they scattered, taking the opportunity to search for food or a sleeping area or just to explore.

All except for Jane.

Gamora tensed again as her eyes fell on her. She didn't particularly enjoy mysteries. More often than not, in her experience, they turned out to be dangerous; the last thing she wanted to do was to share a ship with one.

Jane had appeared out of nowhere in Gamora's cell. She'd managed to avoid being dragged off when Gamora was attacked, which meant either the other prisoners had thought witnesses were unimportant - unlikely, given they'd waited until late at night to come after her - or Jane had managed to vanish again. She'd returned when Gamora, Quill and Rocket were planning their escape, apparently completely uninterested in the fortune they were planning to split but willing to help them escape in return for a place on the ship. She'd refused to explain _how_ she could help them, so Quill and Rocket had dismissed the idea. Gamora, remembering her appearing act, hadn't.

Then she'd seen Jane kill one of the guards with nothing more than a touch.

 _Then_ she'd seen the explosive rounds the guards had been shooting at them blow up a handspan away from the windows, and looked around to see Jane pale and sweating, eyes fixed on the guards below.

Gamora was fairly sure none of the others had realised there was anything unusual about Jane. Rocket might have - he seemed like someone who'd pay attention to things like rockets exploding too early - but he'd been distracted at the time, too caught up in ensuring their escape to realise there was anything unusual happening.

Perhaps it would be wiser to ignore her. But Gamora wasn't sure she could manage that, not when she knew they'd be sharing a ship until Knowhere and possibly even further. The need to know would gnaw far too badly.

If she was going to ask, better to do it early. She'd rather have everything clear between them.

"Jane? I need to talk to you."

There was an expression of grim resignation on Jane's face when she turned away from her view of the stars. "I thought you would."

They ducked aside into an unused storage area. Jane closed the door firmly behind them, and then stood there fiddling with the handle.

"Jane?"

"Right. Sorry." She turned to face Gamora, lips pinched. "You want to know about the cell."

"And the guard. And whatever it was you did to the other guards' guns."

"Oh." Jane's shoulders hunched. "You were paying more attention than I'd realised."

"I don't like mysteries," Gamora said with a shrug.

"Apparently not." Jane sighed. "I can't give you a satisfying answer. Not when I don't really know what's going on either."

"Try me."

"It's a long story," Jane said, fiddling with the cuff of her shirt. "I... I found something. I don't know how. I don't think I should have been able to get to the place I found it. Maybe _it_ was reaching out for me, or for anyone else who got close enough for it to catch. But, well. I ended up somewhere impossible, and reached out and touched something I shouldn't have, and ended up with a passenger. Possessed might be a better way to put it, I suppose."

"I see."

"It was killing me." Jane met Gamora's eyes. Something scarlet gleamed there for a moment, and disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. "Didn't take me long to work that out. I'd do something impossible, and then I'd get weaker. And there wasn't anyone I could go to for help. Earth's not spacefaring yet. Some people know about aliens, but - well, everything I'd heard about them suggested they liked to make problems disappear, and I wasn't sure if they'd think of me as a problem. I needed a way out. I wanted it, desperately, more than anything I'd ever dreamed of. And - I had this device. It was supposed to create a wormhole that could be used to travel through space, the way the Asgardians do, but it wasn't anywhere near finished. I shouldn't have been able to make it work, not for years, not without creating solutions to problems I didn't even know I had yet."

"Let me guess," Gamora said. "It suddenly started working."

Jane nodded. "It changed right in front of me, and turned itself on, and - I should have known better, I suppose. But I thought maybe there'd be a cure on the other side, and even if there wasn't... I'm a scientist. All I ever wanted was to learn. I thought maybe I could die happy having seen alien worlds and learned everything I could manage in however much time I had left."

"But you found a solution," Gamora said. "You're still alive now, after all, and you used your abilities at the Kyln to help us escape."

A bitter smile crossed Jane's face. "I did. It wasn't anything I discovered on Xandar, though. I was attacked by - I don't know what they're called, a short blue guy with dead black eyes -"

"Who tried to touch you?" Gamora asked. "A Vharo. They live off energy they steal from others. I'm surprised you met one on Xandar - most of them never leave their home world, and Xandar doesn't permit them to feed off others without permission. What did you do to him?" Perhaps it wasn't a prudent question - Gamora had noticed that Jane wasn't particularly comfortable using her abilities against others - but she must have done something to have survived.

"He started drawing energy out of me." Jane's mouth twisted. "And _it_ learned. The next thing I knew, he was dead in front of me, and I felt healthier than I had in weeks."

"Oh." Gamora's eyes flicked to Jane's shirt, the sleeves long enough to fall to her fingertips and buttoned tightly around her wrists. She'd covered as much of her skin as possible. Even in the prison she'd done her best to hide her skin... except when they'd been escaping, and she'd pushed her sleeves as high as she could get them.

"After that..." Jane wrapped her arms around herself. "After that, everything seemed so much more urgent. I had to find a cure, or I'd end up choosing between letting myself die and killing others to live. So I used the extra energy he'd given me and melted a passage into the Xandar Academy of the Sciences."

"That's a top-secret research facility."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Jane said, smiling wanly. "I figured they'd have information the libraries I'd been haunting wouldn't. Of course, I got caught. And the security guard tore my sleeve cuffing me. I'm sure you can guess what happened next."

"Yes." Xandarians took a dim view of anyone who threatened their peaceful existence, and murder plus apparent espionage would certainly have counted. "How long were you in the Kyln for?"

"Not long. Maybe a week longer than you were. I spent most of that time hiding and trying to come up with better ways to keep away from everyone else. I haven't managed invisibility yet, but I _can_ walk through walls, which is how I burst in on you."

"Why hide?" Gamora asked. "I doubt more than one person would have tried to attack you, not after seeing what you could do."

Jane shook her head. "I don't want to hurt anybody. Not even someone who tried to attack me first. And I can't control this at all. What if someone pushed me out of the way in the food line, or bumped into me by accident trying to get out of the way of a fight? I can't stop myself sucking energy out of anyone I come into contact with, and I don't want to be a killer."

"So you need practise, then," Gamora said.

Jane blinked. "Sorry?"

"You need to practise," she repeated. "Touch people under controlled circumstances. Learn how to stop yourself from drawing on other people's energy the way you've learned how to keep yourself from affecting everything around you whenever you think of it. It's the only way to control this, so you only take energy when you actually need to."

"I don't want to do this at all," Jane said, shaking her head. "I want to _fix_ this. Not just choose who I hurt."

Gamora shrugged. "Maybe someday we'll find a way to remove it. Or a different energy source. But right now, given a choice between draining someone who's trying to kill you and dying yourself..."

"I don't like it." Jane folded her arms, hands tucked into her armpits. "Surely there has to be another way."

"You said you were a researcher." Gamora waited for Jane to meet her eyes. Slow. She would never have lasted as a Daughter of Thanos. "Have you found one?"

"No. I know you're right. I just... I hate the idea of hurting someone who's never done anything to me. It's different when I'm in the middle of a fight, or somebody's trying to mug me while I'm just minding my own business, but this - who do I even ask? How do I just go up to somebody and say _oh, could you help me, I need to practise draining energy out of people so I don't accidentally kill people any more, and just so you know I might kill you doing it_ -"

"Who?" Gamora said, blinking. "Me, of course."

Jane stared at her, face paling. "What?"

"Why did you think I brought it up?" Gamora extended one bare arm.

"No. No, I - what if I hurt you?"

"You won't. I'm stronger than most." Gamora would never know whether that was due to her species or Thanos's enhancements; he'd told her he'd left half of them alive, but who knew if he was telling the truth? And even if she was... how could she possibly face them, knowing she'd taken part in slaughters as horrific as the one they'd survived?

Jane dropped her head into her hands for a moment, letting out a shaky breath, and then met Gamora's eyes again. "Why are you doing this for me?"

Gamora let out a sigh of her own. "I'm a warrior, Jane. I don't know any other way to be. I'll use any weapon that's handed to me to achieve my aims - and your power? That's the greatest weapon I've ever seen. With you, we might stand a chance against Ronan. But for that, you need to be able to control yourself. You need to use your abilities, not let them use you. The only way that can happen is for you to learn how to hold it back."

For a moment, it looked as though Jane believed her. Then she folded her arms. "And?"

"I'm not the only one who'll see you as a weapon." Gamora's gut was cold as space at the thought of Thanos finding Jane. She wasn't a malleable child, not like his usual targets; what would he do to her? How would he break her? "Your only hope of preventing one of them from finding you and using you is to be able to fight them off, and for that you _need_ to have control over your powers. There's no other option."

Jane's mouth twisted. "Well. I suppose you'd know, wouldn't you?"

Gamora bit her tongue. What was she supposed to say to that?

"So," Jane went on briskly. "Since we're actually carrying out this terrible idea of yours, how do you propose we do it? Do you have any suggestions for ways we could manage this - not _safely_ , I suppose, but more safely than it might otherwise be?"

"Does your ability entrance its victims to prevent them from withdrawing, the way the Vharo's does?" Gamora asked.

"I... I'm not sure. Every time it's happened there's been something going on to distract me."

"Then we can't count on my ability to pull away if you go too far. Not until we understand more about this." Gamora glanced around the small room. It was more comfortable than any of the spacecraft she'd been on in her life - Thanos hadn't valued aesthetics or comfort, and she'd hardly had the opportunity to hire a more expensive craft on one of her solo trips so she could enjoy herself - but that wasn't saying much. Quill had apparently never considered that he'd have passengers he wasn't sharing a bed with, so he'd been forced to sacrifice some of his cushions and blankets so the rest of them could set up makeshift sleeping areas in several of the small storage rooms. She sat down on one of the blanket-piles, gesturing for Jane to sit opposite her.

"Why here?"

"It seemed prudent. If it takes you longer to pull away than you expect - and it will, because you're new to this and nobody's ever successful at a new combat discipline the first time they try it - and I collapse, I'll fall onto the blankets instead of the floor. The same applies if you pull away too abruptly and overbalance."

"You do remember that I killed the last few people I did this to, right?" Jane asked, twisting the blanket's corner between her fingers.

"Under uncontrolled conditions in which you feared for your life, yes. I used to train my younger siblings to fight, Jane. I know what I'm doing." Not that this situation was really directly comparable - for one thing, Gamora and the children had all known that if one of them managed to kill her they'd be rewarded, so she hadn't had the luxury of being careful not to hurt them - but it seemed like a platitude that might reassure Jane enough that she'd actually try.

"If you're sure..." Jane didn't sound it, but she settled herself in place, pulling the ends of her sleeves away from her hands.

"I am. Since we don't know whether I'll be able to pull away on my own or not, you'll need to touch me. Do it for as little time as possible. This is just a test run." Gamora stretched her bare arm out in front of her, locking eyes with Jane.

"All right. I can do this." Jane licked her lips, eyes fixed on Gamora's arm. "It's going to be fine."

Gamora watched as Jane's hand approached, moving slower and slower until her fingers were hovering just over Gamora's skin. She didn't feel anything, which she supposed meant Jane was correct about needing skin contact - unless she was already stealing energy and neither of them could tell, which -

Jane closed that infinitesimal gap, and Gamora _felt_ it.

It wasn't like anything she'd ever felt before - a dozen comparisons sprang to mind, struggling to stay awake while sheltering from an ice storm or the all-over numbness of waking after surgery or the dripping shock of a bad wound - but she knew instinctively what it was. Death creeping into her softly, pulling her inexorably down -

Jane shoved herself backwards, eyes wide, and the connection snapped.

Gamora found herself gasping for air, lungs burning like she'd been sprinting. The place where Jane's fingers had pressed down tingled coolly.

"Good," she said, consciously slowing her breathing. "That was good."

"No, it wasn't."

Gamora extended her arm deliberately, fixing her eyes on Jane's. "You need to try again."

"If I -"

"You won't hurt me. Come on."

"Fine." Jane pushed herself upright again, sighing. "Let's try it again."

"This isn't working."

Gamora set her plate to the side, raising her brows. "It is. You're holding it off."

"For seconds! It just keeps breaking through, and..." Jane sagged, tucking her hands under her armpits. "You can't tell me that's the amount of food you'd normally eat."

"My species have a high energy requirement." Though Jane was right; Gamora had eaten far more than she'd normally require over the past few days they'd spent travelling to Knowhere and experimenting with Jane's abilities. Jane was careful to stay in contact with her for as little time as possible, but she'd still drawn a great deal of energy out of Gamora, and she had to replace it _somehow_.

Jane snorted. "If you say so. But the point remains - what I thought would happen when we started this was that I'd learn to keep myself from hurting people relatively quickly, and what's _actually_ happened is that I've learned how to minimise how much I hurt them, provided I'm in a situation where moving away from them is possible, and I have my wits about me, and I actually notice we're in contact. If I ever actually needed to touch someone - say, if I noticed somebody clinging to the side of a cliff and there wasn't anyone else around to help - I'd still kill them."

"You didn't really think it'd take that little time to master, did you?" Gamora asked. "Every skill takes time and effort."

"I know. But the longer it takes me, the more danger I'll put everyone around me in. And we won't be safe hiding in the middle of space forever."

Which was, unfortunately, true. They would reach Knowhere in less than a day. Gamora would have to take the lead then, since the Collector was _her_ contact; they would no longer have the luxury of hiding away in their tiny room where nobody would bother them, unless Gamora counted Quill making filthy jokes when she ventured out for food.

"Then maybe we need a new plan." Gamora settled herself more comfortably among the blankets. "Even if this had worked out precisely as you wanted it to, it still wouldn't solve the entire problem."

"Sorry?"

"You still need an external source of energy, or you risk being drained yourself. What I'm wondering is whether drawing a large amount of energy from somewhere else might placate the entity enough that it would be less likely to harm those you touched."

"But I'd still need a source," Jane said. "Which, given that the only option I've found so far is people..."

"Surely animals would work similarly."

"Killing animals?" Jane repeated, grimacing.

Gamora raised a brow. "I hadn't realised your species were herbivores."

"I - well, no, we're omnivores, but that's not the same. I could drain far more animals than I could ever eat. And they're innocent creatures."

"You can't depend on finding enough non-innocent sentients to survive on as it is," Gamora pointed out. "Let alone feed your power enough to keep it under control. Animals -"

"Aren't practical," Jane said, shoving herself upright and starting to pace across the room. "It's not as though I can afford to buy and replace whatever huge number of livestock I'd need to consume, and that'd be even more complicated if I ever wanted to take a long-distance spaceflight. I suppose if Quill honours his promise to cut me in on whatever you get from the sale of the Orb that might change, but it's still an unnecessarily complex solution to what ought to be a simple problem."

"Nothing about this has been simple," Gamora said, watching Jane with a frown.

"But it _should_ be. Whatever this thing is inside me, it clearly needs a host to feed, or it wouldn't have jumped into me given the first available opportunity and then immediately begun cannibalising me. But given another solution, it was quite happy to keep me alive and take from other sources instead. All it really needs is energy and a way to access it. And the thing is, the universe is _full_ of energy. Every living thing constantly creates and uses it. The kinetic energy of a wave against a shoreline, the heat of a volcano, sunlight, electricity, whatever power source this spaceship uses - it's all _right there_. Why can't it take from them instead?"

Gamora shrugged. "Maybe it's too hungry. If it destroys everything, what would be left for it to feed on?"

"Maybe. But nothing is ever really destroyed. It just takes on a new form. Which... hmm. I wonder if that's why it needs a host? Maybe it needs me as a conduit to put that energy back out into the universe. It feeds, and I do weird things."

"Perhaps you're right. But is that important right now?"

"Oh. No, you're right," Jane said, shaking her head. "I'm getting caught up in theories when what we need is practical results. Not that either of us know _how_ to get practical results."

"We should keep practising," Gamora said. "You're doing better at holding back than you were. If we keep going, maybe you'll learn how to stop it entirely."

Jane shook her head. "It's not going fast enough. We'll be at Knowhere soon. I don't want to wander around in public while there's still a risk I might kill someone by accident. And there has to be a way to do this properly. I can feel it. Like having a word on the tip of my tongue, and I just can't work out what it is..."

Gamora watched her pace for a moment, frowning. The most tangible effect of their practise had been to draw the thing that possessed Jane further to the surface; the scarlet gleam in her eyes was there almost all the time now, and her hair floated around her as if she were suspended in a null gravity field. Sometimes ripples of scarlet energy flowed out of her, fading out a handspan from her skin or sparking against anything they came into contact with. Nobody who saw her would be able to pretend they didn't know there was something very strange about her, something unheard of in the civilised galaxy.

Just as there were no laws in Knowhere, there was no honour. Whatever spies Thanos or Ronan had in the area would report Jane as soon as they saw her, hoping they'd found a treasure they'd be richly rewarded for. The real risk wouldn't be Jane killing someone unintentionally; it would be in the risk to Jane herself, and to whoever Thanos next chose to target with Jane's newfound powers.

If she told Jane that, perhaps she'd agree to stay on the ship. Jane was as curious as befit a scholar, but she wasn't stupid, and if Gamora told her a few choice tales from her childhood no doubt she'd be horrified enough to take the warning seriously. But that assumed that nothing else would go wrong that might force Jane to leave their safe haven, and Gamora wasn't trusting enough in the universe's kindness to believe that.

"There has to be a way." Jane's voice was barely audible. There was an edge of mania around her now, footsteps faster and faster as energy rippled around her.

Perhaps Jane knew precisely how many changes she'd undergone.

"We should take a break," Gamora said.

Jane flinched and turned, tiny crackles of lightning flaring around her spread hands and in her hair, and then slumped. "Sorry."

"You need something to eat." Gamora touched her clothed elbow, gently, making sure Jane saw her coming. "You can't solve the problem like this."

"Do you plan on telling me to sleep too? Because we don't have time for that." Jane followed her out of the room, though.

"It would help. Nobody is at their best tired." And Jane hadn't had the training Gamora had, either, forced to spar her siblings while she was exhausted or starving or so cold she could barely hold a weapon. Perhaps in time she'd change even more. Perhaps the entity inside her would decide she was more useful to it without the need for mortal things like sleep. But not yet.

"Yes, but..." Jane's voice trailed off as they approached the cockpit. The polarising lenses were down, shading the light of a huge blue-white star to their left.

"Jane?"

"Starlight."

"Yes," Gamora said, frowning. "We have to pass close to it to approach Knowhere from our heading. Perhaps I should wake Quill - I don't know how reliable his autopilot is -"

"No. You don't understand. I'm an _astrophysicist_. I know how stars work. This thing inside me doesn't feed on any other sources of energy because it doesn't know how, it doesn't understand, but I understand stars, and I can use its power to do whatever I want to do, and -"

"Jane -"

Jane thrust her hands towards the star, and the cockpit filled with light.

Gamora didn't know how long she'd been standing there, eyes squeezed tight against a light that seemed equally blinding even with her hands over her eyes. She didn't dare move. How could she leave Jane there? How could she risk moving, blinded and ears ringing with a sound she couldn't hear that nevertheless drowned out every other sound? All she could do was wait and hope that whatever was happening hadn't killed Jane.

Something seemed to _pop_ in the air around her, and Gamora stumbled, the world coming back to her with a rush. She could hear the quiet rumble of the _Milano_ 's engine, her own breathing harsh in her ears, the rustle of her clothing -

She couldn't hear Jane.

Gamora lowered her hands from her eyes and winced. Her vision was full of afterimages, completely obscuring whatever was in front of her.

"Jane?"

"Oh," Jane said, voice light and breathy. "That was..."

"Are you all right?"

"Never better."

Gamora frowned. Whatever had just happened didn't seem like something that ought to make someone _never better_. "Are you sure?"

"It's all right," Jane said, smiling. "I'm fine now. I know how to balance it."

"How do you balance it?" Gamora asked warily.

"Oh, it's easy. I should have thought of it to start with. It's all just energy, after all - and no matter how hungry _it_ gets, it can't destroy a star, not unless I choose the wrong one. They aren't eternal, they do die eventually, but it takes such a long time... They aren't like us. They live for so long, singing the melodies of the universe..."

"Jane," Gamora said, and broke off. The dark spots in front of her eyes were almost faded now, and the sight in front of her wasn't reassuring. Jane was almost coruscating with energy, scarlet intermixed with flashes of blinding white, and Gamora was fairly sure she was taller, too. And the dreamy tone in her voice was just... wrong.

"Gamora?" Her voice sharpened. "I am fine. Really. It's just... Have you ever taken drugs? Mind-altering substances, I mean, I suppose they might not be called that here. I did once when I was a student. I didn't like it very much. This is much better, but I couldn't keep it up for long. For one thing, it's very obvious."

"It is, yes." Gamora pressed her palms over her eyes, enjoying the moments of pure darkness. "What did you _do?_ "

"Understood what I was doing, for the first time since I left Earth. The thing inside me - it calls itself the Aether - it wants to have an effect on the galaxy, as much as something that's not quite alive can want something. But it needs a conduit to do it. Its conduits always burn out fast, because it doesn't have a source of energy that isn't them. I've lasted longer than most, but it would have killed me eventually when my ethics got in the way of my desire to preserve my life. But of course that wasn't really a problem, because as soon as I looked at the problem the right way I realised how I could power myself forever. I _can't_ burn out now, not unless I do something very stupid. The Aether likes me too much not to reshape reality to make sure it can't hurt me."

"I see." Gamora took her hands away from her eyes warily. Jane's glow had faded slightly, enough for Gamora to be able to see her properly. There were swirls and splashes of red on her skin - no, under it, and they were _moving_. As she watched, a scarlet tendril looped itself over her collarbone. "Nobody could mistake you for an ordinary Terran now."

"I know." Jane's smile turned rueful. "I think I could... well, not turn it off, it's a part of me as much as the Aether is, but hide it. It's just a matter of changing people's perceptions."

"Are you _sure_ you're all right?"

"Here." Jane held out a hand. "Let me show you."

It was irrational to be more concerned about touching Jane now than she had been for all those days they'd spent trying to rein her abilities in. Maybe it was because Jane seemed so strangely confident when not too long before she'd been sure she'd never be able to control her abilities. Still, it was irrational, and Gamora knew it - and even if Jane were wrong, she could get away easily enough; they'd proven that already, after all.

Gamora took her hand.

Nothing happened.

"You've got it." Her hand was warmer than Gamora had expected. Maybe it was the energy flaring off her, rolling along Gamora's skin in tingling waves.

"And it'll stay that way. I'm in control now, not the Aether." Jane stepped towards her, eyes fixed on Gamora's. "I'm glad. I missed being able to touch people."

"You did?"

"Yes. Did Thanos ever let you do that? Touch people just to be nice, for comfort or warmth or just being together? Or did he only let you hurt people?"

Gamora wasn't sure there was a point in asking. Anybody who'd heard of Thanos would be able to guess, after all. But she found she didn't want to explain. The last thing she wanted right now, with Jane's hand warm in hers and Jane's energy shivering across her skin and Jane herself standing so close she could feel her breath on her skin, was to discuss Thanos.

"You should try it," Jane murmured. "It's nice."

Gamora didn't have much experience with romance. She'd been taught to ignore attempts at flirtation, and up until now she hadn't minded doing just that. But now -

"Maybe you should show me."

Jane smiled slowly. "Maybe I should."

She pressed her lips to Gamora's. Heat washed through her, and Gamora couldn't help but stumble closer, clutching at Jane's arms, almost dizzy with want.

When they broke apart after a few long minutes, Jane murmured, "You have no idea how hard it was all that time - touching you, and not being able to _touch_ you -"

Gamora shivered. "I do now." Every place Jane's hands had touched had seemed to burn afterwards, the touch far more significant than any she'd known. Gamora had thought it was because of Jane's ability, but now... now she doubted that.

"Come on," Jane said, taking Gamora's hand and tugging her back towards their room.

"You need to eat..."

"Oh, no. I'm fine. And it's only a few hours until we hit Knowhere." Jane shot her a wicked smile. "I can think of much more interesting things we could do with that time than listening to Quill tell dirty jokes."

Gamora only hesitated a moment more. "Lead the way."

Gamora closed the door to the rooms the Xandarians had given her and, for the first time in what felt like days, allowed herself to relax.

Ronan was dead. The Infinity Stone was out of their hands. They'd survived, and so had most of the Xandarians - largely thanks to Jane, who'd spread herself thin keeping the aerial bombardment away from civilians. Everything was finally over.

"Gamora?" Jane's voice was quiet through the door.

"Come in!"

Given permission, she didn't hesitate, rushing into the room and stopping just short of throwing herself at Gamora. "Are you all right?" Jane's hands hovered just above Gamora's arms, covered in grime and patches of blackened skin, as if she were afraid to hurt her. It was... sweet. Ridiculous, of course - hadn't she survived Thanos? - but it warmed Gamora all the same, to know that someone cared enough to worry if they'd hurt her.

"I told you I was tough, didn't I?"

"Gamora," Jane said lowly. "I know exactly what you just went through. Remember? Though I think your Stone was worse, given how badly injured you all are -"

"Jane. I'm fine." Gamora took Jane's hand, squeezing tight enough to remind her they'd both survived. "I wonder if practising with you the way I did made it easier. Maybe it made me more used to that kind of power."

"If that was what it did to somebody who was _used_ to being in contact with an Infinity Stone, I hate to think what it would have done to someone who'd never been near one at all." Jane shivered. "Is there anything I can do for you? I haven't tried healing yet, but I'm sure it'd work, it's just changing reality in a slightly different way than normal -"

"I'm _fine_ , Jane. I told you before, I heal fast." Gamora squeezed her hands again. "Maybe you could find some food? I want to wash some of this grime off."

"Okay. I'll be back soon." Jane brushed her lips across Gamora's before turning to leave.

Alone, Gamora stepped into the bathroom. It was far larger than she'd expected - but then, the Xandarians were fond enough of them right now she supposed she shouldn't be surprised that they'd given them the good rooms. She couldn't help but let her eyes stray towards the huge tub... and why not? Thanos would have said that kind of luxury would make her weak, but why should she care what he thought? Gamora was her own person. She turned towards it, ready to enjoy herself.

And caught a glimpse of purple out of the corner of her eye.

Gamora froze. The Power Stone was gone. The bathroom was tiled entirely in white. There shouldn't have been anything purple in here at all.

She turned slowly towards the mirror, leaning in close and staring into her eyes. Nothing. They were normal, the way they should have been. This wasn't like what had happened to Jane; the Power Stone wasn't looking for a conduit, not like the Aether had been. Why would it have had any aftereffects?

Gamora drew away, shaking her head. It'd been a long day. No wonder she was seeing things. She'd feel better once she'd eaten and washed and slept.

And if, when she sank into the steaming water, the mirror was safely behind her - well, clearly that was just a coincidence.


End file.
